Happy Birthday to Us – The B-Town Blog Turns Five Years Old Today!

Five years ago today (at 9:03 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007 to be exact), Burien resident Scott Schaefer[2] founded The B-Town Blog (flashback to our first post here)[3], and we’d like to celebrate by thanking YOU – our Readers and Advertisers – without whom this venture would not be possible!

In those short five years, we’ve grown into South King County’s leading News, Events, Arts, Entertainment and more website, with a recent average of between 65,000 ~ 71,000 Unique Visits per month (or approximately 103,000/month for our network of six local blogs).

From humble beginnings, The B-Town Blog has expanded into South King Media[4], which also includes other media properties, like:

Since we’ve got cake all over our faces and are in a self-indulgent mode, we’d also like to take a moment to point out that we’re the only local blog in the entire Northwest to also be awarded as “Best Hyperlocal Website[17]” by the Society of Professional Journalists for two consecutive years!

Of course, no operation like this could be run consistently without a great team – the folks behind Burien’s original and first local blog include:

Scott Schaefer[18], Founder/Publisher/Editor: With three National Emmy Awards[19] for Writing on “Bill Nye the Science Guy” and over 25 years’ experience in TV/video, multimedia, marketing/advertising, technology and the internet, Scott started The B-Town Blog as a hobby and has since turned it into a local network called South King Media[4]. His other credits include as a Director on “Penn & Teller:Bullsh*t!” (Showtime), “The Arsenio Hall Show” (Paramount), “Sightings” (Paramount), “Totally Hidden Video” (Fox), “America’s Funniest People” (ABC), Fox On-Air Promotions and KING-TV’s “Almost Live!” where he got his start in 1985. Most recently Scott announced that he’ll be Directing a short film called “The Maury Island Incident” in 2013.

Michael Brunk[20], Photographer/Technical Guru. With a love of photography that spans more than 20 years, Michael has fond memories of film but wouldn’t give up his digital SLR for anything. His checkered past includes stints as a monthly columnist for a nationally published magazine on telecommunications and technology and several years reviewing movies. His main qualifications are a large camera and free time. He also builds and maintains the code that runs all of our sites.

Jack Mayne[21], Senior Reporter. Jack Mayne has done about all there is to do in print journalism. He has been city editor of the Seattle P.I. back in its glory days, edited the Journal American in Bellevue and Valley Daily News in Kent in the 1990s. Before that he was a freelance international journalist and reported from South Africa, China, visited over 80 countries and even covered a colonial war in the 20th century between the United Kingdom and Argentina over the desolate Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. He got his start at the Vancouver Province, thence to The Associated Press, becoming chief of the New England bureau, but a desire of AP to send him to Buffalo, N.Y., drove him back to Seattle. With writing for print becoming quaint and dated, he is now setting his sights on Web journalism and has written several stories for the B-Town Blog and plans many more.

Ralph Nichols[22], Senior Reporter. Ralph specializes in public policy and legal issues, medical matters, and business profiles. For several years, he was an editor, reporter, and columnist for the Highline Times. Previously he worked in the Seattle area, Alaska and Idaho as a reporter for daily newspapers, United Press International, and trade publications; as a state capitol bureau chief and columnist; and a public relations writer and project manager.

Mark Neuman[23], Writer/Marketing: former real-world Journalist, TV Host, Producer and Marketer, Mark is an old friend of Scott’s going back to when they worked on their high school newspaper together (West Seattle High’s “Chinook”). Mark has interviewed two US Presidents, cops, cooks and cartoonists, authors and artists, senators, singers, scholars and senior citizens, along with the first Mayor of Burien[24], a local man running for State Superior Court[25] and much more[26].

Theresa Schaefer[27], Sales Manager. A veteran sales and marketing pro with vast national account experience for Victorinox Swiss Army, Nordstrom and many other companies, she is also Scott’s lovely wife.

Michael Hettler[28], Sales Rep. Michael is our newest team member, with mad skills at promotion, social media, marketing and making sure Advertisers’ important messages get delivered to our vast network of Readers.

Bryan Charles[29], Intern, Big Picture High School. Bryan, 17, is a very talented Artist/Animator who we honestly believe will go on to be a huge success ala Matt Groening or Matt Parker/Trey Stone. Last May, he lead a team that won the ‘MOHAI History Award’ from the Museum of History and Industry for a group-collaborated animation called ‘History is Repetition[30].’ Watch some of his videos here[31]!

Shawn Underwood[32], Humor Columnist: Twenty-five years of living in Burien gives this Humorist much fodder for her writings. All of her stories are true, or at least have a grain of truth with no added embellishments.Or something like that. In addition to sharing her humor writings with our Readers, she also volunteers for the American Red Cross[33].

Of course, our success is also due to people like Janet Grella – our first Sales Manager, as well as Joy Steele, along with others we hope we didn’t forget to mention!

And finally, we’d like to take a moment to posthumously honor the memory of Writer/Sales Rep Margaret Ryan[34], who was tragically killed Nov. 13.

As Actor Ed Asner said in the role of Lou Grant during a classic episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Margaret “had spunk!”